Article by
Barbados Today

Published on
May 15, 2015

Kemar Saffrey is most popularly known for being the brains behind the Homeless And Vagrants Society, but he has now taken up another venture –– as entrepreneur. Saffrey this week opened an ice cream parlour –– Sundae Funday –– in The Colonnade Mall in Bridgetown.

Not only is he excited about starting this new venture, but he is also glad he has another avenue for giving to his charity to further assist the homeless.

“I decided to start an ice cream shop as one of my business initiatives. But the whole idea was to have the whole ice cream parlour surround the Homeless Society, giving more exposure, based on the foot traffic that would be coming through.

“We will be letting persons know all about the society. What the staff will be doing as well is explaining to the customers about the organization and encouraging them to make contributions to the organization through the shop,” he said.

Saffrey explained that the shop, which is adorned with pictures displaying the journey of the charity, would be giving half of its proceeds to the charity. He added that he had also implemented Dollar Drive and Buy One, Leave One systems at the shop.

“We have the Dollar Drive . . . so they can just come and make a contribution . . . . This shop will definitely feed into our fund-raising initiatives . . . .

“The Buy One, Leave One? Customers can buy one ice cream and leave money for another one. That way, if we go out on one of our missions and want to treat the homeless to an ice cream, we can get one from the shop and help them,” he explained.

The shop was officially opened on Monday, but launched before the media yesterday. Saffrey took the time to appeal for more volunteers to get on board and help with the charity.

Case manager Kimberly Hinds-Harewood and manager Kemar Saffrey.

“We have a large volunteer core, but we are tying to get more volunteers to be constantly coming. We know sometimes they have challenges with time, but we are more looking for steady volunteers, especially for our on-the-road ministry.

Saffrey said the response to his new venture had been good so far, and he believed it would do “really well”. Already, he is looking to a second location on the West Coast.

A customer receiving his ice cream from cashier Cherene Ward.

“We have some persons who are in here three and four times a day. A lot more marketing has to be put in place, because obviously it’s new to the mall and by extension Bridgetown,” Saffrey added.

Post navigation

2 thoughts on “Ice cream –– to cause of homeless”

Tony Webster

A certain PM, and a certain Min. Finance, urgently need to have a bowl of soup, so as to agree who gine tek-over the “Ministry of Garbage and all other things rotten”…from a colleague who is clearly out of his depth in his sole remaining responsibility.
Wid de budget dead-ahead, dis is a perfect, and very un-welcome storm…both for these two Big-Brains folks….and for all suffering taxpayers.
Give him Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs…or summuch. He could lead prayers every Thursduh, and join in group-rendering of the hymn: “Effin we jes’ had a couple more good men” . Alternatively, the whole smelly thing cud be referred to the Unemeployment Rights Tribulation thing.

A certain PM, and a certain Min. Finance, urgently need to have a bowl of soup, so as to agree who gine tek-over the “Ministry of Garbage and all other things rotten”…from a colleague who is clearly out of his depth in his sole remaining responsibility.
Wid de budget dead-ahead, dis is a perfect, and very un-welcome storm…both for these two Big-Brains folks….and for all suffering taxpayers.
Give him Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs…or summuch. He could lead prayers every Thursduh, and join in group-rendering of the hymn: “Effin we jes’ had a couple more good men” . Alternatively, the whole smelly thing cud be referred to the Unemeployment Rights Tribulation thing.